Armchair Apocrypha

Armchair Apocrypha is American singer-songwriter Andrew Bird’s fourth studio album and his third post-Bowl of Fire album. The album features more electric guitars, a change from the more acoustic-oriented Eggs, though the songs are similar in character if slightly more straightforward.

“Simple X” is a track started by collaborator Dosh, who supplied the drum track on the final version, with Bird adding lyrics. The track “Imitosis” is an expansion of the song “I” (also called “Capital I” live) on his 2003 album Weather Systems. The song “Darkmatter” is also a rehash of the song “Sweetbreads”, which can be found on the live EP Fingerlings 1. Both bonus tracks also evolved from previous songs: “Sick of Elephants” was originally known as “Sycophantitis” and “Self-Torture” adds lyrics and incorporates the melody from the instrumental “The Water Jet Cilice” from Fingerlings 3. Haley Bonar who opened some shows on Andrew’s tour sings background vocals on four songs.

The album debuted at number 76 on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling about 11,000 copies in its first week.